Gender, socioeconomic status and adult mortality in New Zealand: 1981-2001

Santosh Jatrana, University of Otago
Tony Blakely, University of Otago

Purpose: Using the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study (NZCMS) this study examines the following research questions: 1. What is the magnitude of gender inequality in adult (25-74 years) all cause mortality in New Zealand? 2. What is the contribution of socio-economic factors to gender inequality in all cause mortality? 3. Does the relationship between gender, SES and all cause mortality change over time? Methods: The NZCMS comprise of five cohorts formed by anonymous and probabilistic linkage of five censuses to three years of mortality records. We used the relative and slope index of inequality and Poisson regression and a comprehensive set of socioeconomic indicators (education, income, car access, housing tenure, neighourhood deprivation) in our study. Results and conclusions: This study brings out the dynamic nature of the association between gender, SES and mortality and shows that socioeconomic factors play a sizeable role in inequalities in all cause mortality by gender.